Bible reading….why do we do it? Why should we do it? These are valid questions. A girlfriend shared these thoughts with me recently on this subject. We all need to evaluate, be honest with ourselves and with God.“Some…are reading the Word of God for the wrong reasons, such as curiosity or pride (in the sense that they can tell others how often they read it). Others read to accumulate knowledge as a weapon of war, but not against Satan. They use it for the purpose of being able to argue successfully with those who would differ from them or have an opposing point of view.As a result of their wrongful reading there is not thought of God, no yearning for spiritual edification, no benefit to the soul, and most importantly, no power in their lives to overcome ..”The Word is where we can go to find truth when we are confused. The Word is Truth and never changes. The Word is a light to our path; it will help us make decisions throughout life. The Word is a weapon; it is a sword we can swing to conquer lies. But, most importantly the Word is God speaking to us, to us as individuals and as His family. He wants to meet with us. He beckons us to come. Reading the Bible is hearing from God. As we read He talks to us. Amidst His conversing with us, we respond. We talk to Him. We may ask questions or plead for strength to obey. We may be overcome with thankfulness or we may beg for mercy. We may be convicted or reminded of other’s needs. Reading God’s word is an excitingly expectant way of getting to know our Savior more. Gaining understanding of who He is and who He has made us to be is a lifelong mission. “Come near to God and He will come near to you.” James 4:8

Theme: It is not about me…ever. Today: it is not about me, it is about living under authority. (being submissive)LADIES LIVE UNDER AUTHORITY. Girls fight for their rights.LADIES ENCOURAGE.Girls gossip.Live under authority, what is it, who, and how? Who are we to respect?One of the main authorities is parents, always remember God is trustworthy and He gave you just the right parents. Your parents may not always please you, but I know all your parents and they base their decisions out of love for you.I Peter 2: 13 submit to every human authorityEph 6:2Honor your mother and fatherHeb 3: 13 encourage one another dailyI Thes 5:11 Encourage one another and lift each other upDo you gossip? Is gossip encouraging? Not usually. When /Where is it easiest to gossip? How turn those conversations around?Living under authority can be hard because we want what we want and we want it now. Allowing God to lead and sometimes use authority we need to remain flexible. Trusting that in every change God is trust worthy. In every up or down the Lord is in control. It is a matter of adjusting our sails. We start out with a destination in mind but things come up, storms, wind shifts, and we need to adjust our sails so we can still get to our destination. As we talk about encouraging others we cannot over look at times having to talk to ourselves. Like this example of a starving baker. (Habitudes pg 44) The idea is a baker gets so consumed with serving that he forgets to feed himself. We cannot get so caught up in doing that we neglect sitting at the Lord’s table and being refreshed.Read and journal: Romans 12: 14-21 “Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. ‘I’ll do the judging,’ says God ‘I’ll take care of it.’Our Scripture tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.”Discuss what stood out to you (what do parents have to do with blessing enemies?)Challenge: encourage one another, whenever see something good verbalize it

Theme: it is not about me…ever.Today: It is not about me …ever, it is about being purposeful.LADIES ARE PURPOSEFUL. Girls daydream and fantasize.LADIES BUILD THEIR HOMES. Girls hit the mall.Ladies are purposeful, that doesn’t mean you won’t ever be in a situation that is difficult for you to do what is right. We must learn to take responsibility, may say “they, we or I” to whatever level of responsibility ready to take. For example: They won’t let me.We don’t do that. I don’t do that.Look up: Psalm 48: 14 He will be our guide to the end. Illustration: Imagine you are going to look at elephants in Africa. Your guide is leading you on foot through some pretty thick terrain. Suddenly, there is noise in the bushes nearby and before you can even register what is happening, an elephant comes charging directly towards you. Without hesitation your guide steps in between you and the elephant, plants his feet, lifts his gun and at twelve feet shoots the elephant and drops him in his tracks. That is the kind of guide Jesus is, He leads you and he protects you. When evil charges He steps right in the middle and stops evil from getting to you. Luke 16: 10 trusted with littleBeing purposeful starts at home. Much of what we do at home could be considered the little, but our faithfulness will not go unnoticed by God.Helen Keller quote “I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble.”Let’s look up : Ecc 9: 10 “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” Col 3: 23 “as unto the Lord” One time my husband had a singer over to work on a demo, he did a fine job. About half way through another singer came to help with the chorus. When she walked into the room the first singer recognized her and sat up straight and said, “if I would have known I was working with you I would have worked harder.” That second singer later said to me, “We should always do our best in any and every situation.”That is always being purposeful in living to honor God.To honor God, He is trust worthy, He is our guide and uses your family to guide you and your family loves you.Read and journal: Romans 12: 9-13 “Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil hold on for dear life t good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians be inventive in hospitality.”Discuss: what stood out in these verses (how do we keep going)Challenge: Pray, in every situation pray, as we change from activity to activity, pray

What is our theme: It is not about me…everToday: It is not about me…ever, it is about trusting God and His Word. (Think for a moment, do you trust God? His word?)LADIES TRUST GOD. Girls worry.LADIES ARE DRIVEN BY PRINCIPLES (based on God’s Word). Girls are led by emotions.Where do our emotions fit in? To be enjoyed, but not to guide, to warn, but not to determine the day.We need to be thermostats NOT thermometers, Why would I say that? In others words we have the power to set the climate or reflect the climate around us. (concept from Habitudes by Tim Elmore) We want you to set the climate and not just adapt to whatever is going on around you.One way we do this is by giving thanks in all circumstances, not because all circumstances are fun but because we trust God and He is over all our circumstances. He is with us through every trial. I view thankfulness as the welcome mat to God’s presence. Imagine God’s presence being a big beautiful mansion, all we have to do is open the door and go in. yet, as we come to the door there is a welcome mat and instead of wiping our feet we praise our Savior and the door to His presence flies open! Thankful,(read pg 290 of Jesus Lives by Sarah Young) can always trust God in all circumstance come to Him with thanksgivingFill up with God, nothing else or no one else can satisfy. All look up and discuss: Prov 3: 5 lean not on own understandingII Cor 13: 8 cannot do anything against truthLastly, before we get to our own personal times I have one more illustration. (I had the top half of a milk jug, cut so handle is like a spout. Filled over half way with blue colored water and on top of that about half an inch of cooking oil) This colored liquid is God’s Truth and the oil is the world and its philosophies. Often we can’t see God’s Truth because we are looking at it through cloudy worldly thoughts. Sometimes we try to reach for God’s Truth through the world’s views and it all gets mixed up and hard to discern Truth from a lie. How do we get Truth then? Yes, prayer and reading of God’s Word are our way of avoiding the lies this world tries to sell us. The trick is we must be willing to take God’s Word alone as truth no matter what the world wants to pour at us, we say NO. (Pour water out from spout as talk about bowing in prayer and reading Bible and stop quickly when oil starts to go into spout while saying NO)Read and journal: Romans 12: 3 “I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what He does for us, not by what we are and what we do for Him.”Discuss: What stood out in this verse (how can we have an attitude of gratitude)Challenge: see and state what thankful for in every situation today

Just finished another week of Girl’s Camp; hosted this year at our house with another mom. Again we did a devotion each day, below is day one.Theme for Girl’s Camp is: It is not about me…ever.Through the next few days we would like to build a vision for becoming a lady and leaving your girlish, childish ways behind. I Cor. 13: 11 “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man (lady), I put the ways of childhood behind me. “What would you say defines a lady vs a child or girl?Lady= a woman of distinction-difference in kind of qualities one is known for. Originally given to daughters of fathers in high rank. (fitting as we are daughters of THE King)Girl/Child=one weak in knowledge, experience, judgment or attainments**note the difference between a lady and a girl is maturity, not a specific ageAs girls becoming ladies we go through stages. As toddlers we do things that aren’t acceptable in elementary, examples?(take a bath together) As elementary age we do things that are not acceptable in Jr. High, examples? (walk around holding hands) As High School age we do things that are not acceptable as an adult, examples?(sleep until noon) Is there anything you are doing now that perhaps needs to be left behind in the last stage? Last year I talked about stages we go through by giving them pictures, I would like to share those again.Girlhood: fun, imagination, snuggles, giggles, lots of time with friendsBallerina: start to realize life takes work, discipline and focus—yet, there is still a strong desire to be beautiful and noticed by everyone. Cheerleader: start to see other’s needs and want to do something to help. But the big step comes when self loses its grip and action is put to those desires to help others. This help might be side by side or encouragement from the sideline. The goal is to give those around us what they need to keep going. Queen and SageSo although our theme is: It is not about me…ever, today:It is not about me … ever, it is about living for GodGod has called us to maturity, Eph 4: 11-17We need to reject the world’s philosophies and embrace God’s ways. This takes work, recognizing temptation and being prepared to handle it.We need to flee temptation like Joseph did, Genesis 39. bubble wrap illustration (bob, stop, drop, pop):Let’s say this bubble wrap is any temptation you deal with. Your parents have told you that as a family they do not want you to pop bubble wrap. And as you have read your Bible you have been convicted not to kill and popping bubble wrap does kill its function. So one day as you are bopping along you see some bubble wrap sitting on the table. Suddenly, you stop, you stare….then you drop, into the chair by the table. Before you know it you have popped the bubble wrap. What happened to your families stand? to your convictions about bubble wrap? Where did you slip? How could you have resisted? Next time you are bobbing, don’t even stop…keeping on bobbing past temptation and you will never drop or pop J.Read and journal: Rom 12: 1-2 The Message“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”Discuss: What stood out in these verses Challenge: Think about ways have become too well-adjusted to culture, adjust as needed

Today I was reading in Psalms and reminded of the imagery that goes with raising our hands before the Lord in worship. I know some Christians feel uncomfortable raising their hands and I am not pushing anyone. Even if it is within your heart or only when you are alone with your Savior the picture is the same.Psalm 63: 4-5 “I will praise You as long as I live, and in Your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise You.”These verses start out with a sacrifice of praise, I see surrender. I let go of myself; I lift up my hands and give all of me to the Lord. As I continue to praise Him my surrender turns into a funnel. With my hands lifted high I invite the Lord to fill me up, to satisfy me with Himself. Again my response is to praise Him!